Voter Turnout for Primaries Shows Troublesome Trend

According to this article from September 14^th in the New York Times, for the first time since the 1930’s, Republican turnout for primary elections in 2010 has outpaced that of Democrats, with just over 10% of Republicans participating compared to about 8% of Democrats. To some this might sound like an obvious warning to Democrats of potential losses in the upcoming midterm elections, but the article suggests that there is more to these figures than meets the eye.

While it is unclear whether higher levels of Republican primary participation spell doom for the Democrats in November, a closer look at the data shows reasons for leaders of both parties to be concerned — the number of nonvoters continues to outpace voters. In a primary season where the narrative tends to be about partisanship and anger, the statistics through the end of the summer suggest that voter participation remained relatively consistent with the last couple off-year election cycles.

Precisely why fewer voters are voting in primaries is open to debate, but many believe it is because fewer Americans are choosing to identify with a specific party – both Democrats and Republicans are currently seeing fewer and fewer Americans self-identify into their party. With most states holding closed primaries, meaning one must be a registered Republican or Democrat to participate, a lack of party affiliation instantly disqualifies a voter from primary participation.

How might sagging rates of participation be remedied? One state is attempting to take action to reverse the trend of non-participation: simply by giving their voters the option of voting in advance by mail, Colorado’s rate of primary participation more than doubled in 2010 compared to 2006. Colorado follows the same closed-primary system as most other states, yet has managed to significantly boost participation rates just by reducing the opportunity cost to their voters of casting a vote in a primary election.

Were more states to follow Colorado’s example and attempt to make primary voting as quick and easy as possible for their voters, it might be possible to reverse the current trend; it is clear that most voters today need the process to be expedited to consider it worthwhile to participate in primaries.